An aging B.C. Hydro substation in Downtown Vancouver must be replaced, though some West End residents are against the proposed location of its successor.
The Dal Grauer Substation has been powering Downtown Vancouver for more than seven decades. About 50,000 homes and businesses in the area are currently served by it.
However, B.C. Hydro said this facility — and another nearby — are approaching the end of their operational lives, and the area needs a new one.
“Everybody who lives downtown works downtown, needs electricity and needs clean electricity. So we need this,” said Energy Minister Adrian Dix.
The proposed site for a new substation is under Lord Roberts Annex elementary, beside Nelson Park. (CBC)
Location concerns
Community advocates in the West End agree a substation is needed, but worry about its proposed location.
“B.C. Hydro has made a decision to build a massive industrial infrastructure project in the only local park for the interior of the West End — a park that services 20,000 people within a 10-minute walking distance,” said Carol Reardon, a member of an advocacy group called the Friends of Nelson Park.
The proposed site is under Lord Roberts Annex elementary, beside Nelson Park.
B.C. Hydro and the Vancouver School Board finalized the deal in 2018, saying the underground facility will preserve the valuable urban land above.
“If the project goes forward, the school will be torn down, the playground will be gone,” said Reardon.
“They are planning to cut down 85 trees … one of the best features of the park are these majestic mature canopy trees.”
Under the terms of the deal made in 2018, the school district was to receive a minimum of $73 million from B.C. Hydro for construction of an elementary school that will include child care spaces and a playing field.
As of this year, the Vancouver School Board filed a development application for the school’s replacement — a three-storey elementary school for over 500 students. It will have playgrounds, a basketball court and a sports field, among other things.
A map B.C. Hydro posted on its site shows the new school is intended to be located adjacent to the new substation.
Logistical constraints
One expert says replacing an aging electricity infrastructure in the middle of a city is difficult because free space is hard to come by.
“There are always logistical constraints,” said Werner Antweiler, a University of British Columbia economics professor.
“It’s not easy moving it anywhere. It has to be in a specific place, a nodal place where that can be all brought together.”
B.C. Hydro said it considered those constraints.
“The choices we’ve made have had — compared to all of the other choices we could have made — the least possible disruption,” Dix said.
The B.C. Utilities Commission is now considering whether the project is in the public interest, with a decision expected in the coming months.
B.C. Hydro says it won’t begin construction until that approval is granted.